A Little About Forex Brokers

2010 July 19
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Many of you must have seen glossy ads for Forex Trading claiming a fantastic amount of profit & a high control. Even if it would not be proper to say that all the claims are sham, one can safely say that the claims are always extravagant to attract gullible investors. No doubt, it could lead you to the path of success provided you are well equipped with proper strategy & in-depth analysis.

Here the need for forex broker comes into picture. This article would discuss the substance & rational for existence of brokers in the currency market.

As many of you must be knowing the forex trading is mainly of OTC (Over the counter) nature. Now what do we mean by OTC? OTC means ‘Non Exchange Traded’. Let me elaborate this a small more. In case of Equity (stocks) & Futures the trade occurs on one or more Stock exchanges. In case of OTC products, which includes Forex, the trading that is buying & selling is done between the private parties & they are in more vicinity than any trade you may enter for Equity & Futures. When you buy or sell any equity or future you buy it from the Stock Exchange & you don’t know who is selling what the scrip you are buying or vise- a-versa.

Conversely, in case of OTC trades you are buying & selling from party parties as no designated place such as Stock Exchange is involved.

Coming back to Forex trading, OTC in this context means Over the Counter of Banks & other Financial Institutions who ordinarily trade currencies in millions & superior amounts.

This accounts for the major part of total world wide currency trade.

Now you would question then how come it would be doable for us to start trading with a few hundred Dollars as many of the Ads claim that you can certainly make a start with small amounts like $500? This is doable due to brokers.

Even if the majority of forex trade occurs at Banks’ & FIIs’ level the forex brokers facilitate for retail forex trade where party investors can trade forex with a small & reasonably priced amount.

Forex brokers acts as a link between the huge market (where large dealers like banks & FIIs trade) & the party retail traders.

So why do we need brokers? The first & most vital reason is to facilitate the party retail investors to enter the forex market even if indirectly & that through forex brokers. Brokers trade with the collective amounts of all small retail investors.

Now once you start the trading through the forex brokers what next?

You need to make reasonable profit from the forex trading. Believe me, its not an simple task to make instant profit as many of the programs claim. To make a profit from forex trading you need to know all the details of forex trading. As all of you know the forex trading is 24×7 & is carried out all over the globe. To do any analysis you need trading data. In case of listed securities the data can be easily unfilled through Exchanges. But, in case of forex trading the data is not so easily unfilled mainly because of dispersion of trading places across the markets over the globe. Also the traders being party parties the data is not in a standardized format.

A forex broker could help you to know the market & may guide you with their own analysis. Forex brokers can afford to hire particular professionals who do all the complex market analysis & help you to make a trading pronouncement.

To summarize a forex broker is a link between the retail investor & larger market players who facilitates the retail traders to enter the market who otherwise could not have entered due to the large amounts involved.

Subsequent points would summarize the rational of there being forex brokers in currency market:

1) The amount involved in forex trading is ordinarily very huge. Forex brokers are vital for an party retail forex trader to enter the market. This is facilitated by the control which many forex brokers ordinarily offer.
2) The party retail investor might not be well versed with all the technicalities of Forex trading. So without an analysis of the market it could be a fatal thing to trade & the trader might end up losing all the capital.
3) With proper guidance & tips from the forex broker one can reap the benefits of speculation in the currency market.

As all of you would agree, you should be very strict while selecting the broker. This is really vital because the whole fortune of your forex trading endeavor depends on the expertise & honesty of your broker.

In case of normal exchange traded securities like stocks & futures you are dealing with the Stock Exchange & the risk of narrow for buying & selling of securities not being honored by any party (Physically or the Exchange) is NIL. The exchange takes the guarantee that all the contracts are honored as agreed between the parties involved.

In case of forex trading, in the absence of designated exchange, the risk of default from either side is high. (This risk is prevalent in nearly all kind of OTC products).

Forex trading even if of OTC nature is now a days well organized & regulated. You need to check that whoever broker you select should be well regulated & should follow the underlying guidelines as might be prescribed by the Regulating Authority.

Visit Author Homepage at http://forex-sskcorp.blogspot.com. The Purpose of this blog is to educate people about Foreign Exchange mechanism & to provide a platform to discuss innumerable forex tips.

Author: Shirish Kulkarni
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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